EDICT OF ANTONY ON PROPERTY
  
( 34 BC )

 
( Johnson, Coleman-Norton & Bourne, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin, 1961, p. 110, n. 127 ).
 
 
     The date of this edict is as doubtful as its purpose. The ancient writer on land-surveying who ascribes this proclamation to Mark Antony is silent about the cause and the sphere of its application and the edict itself advances no answer. However, this proclamation perhaps may be connected either with an unrecorded reassignment of land after Octavian in 41 B.C. had dispossessed not a few landowners in favor of veteran soldiers, on whom their property was bestowed as a bonus (Appian, BC 5, 2, 12-16 ; Dio 48, 6-9), or, more probably, with the promise of Antony and Octavian to Sextus Pompey at Puteoli in 39 B.C. that they would restore a quarter of such property as had been confiscated from certain proscribed Romans who had taken refuge with this rebel (Appian, BC 5, 8, 71-72 ; Dio 48, 36, 4). The fact that Antony issued it alone, instead of jointly with his colleagues, may seem unusual, but it is not sufficient to cast doubt on the authenticity of the edict.
 
 
ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
 
 
     Marcus Antonius, triumvir for establishing the Republic, consul for the second time, consul-designate for the third time, proclaims :
     That those persons to whom has been restored their own property shall hold it with the original boundaries in this manner : neither shall anyone be affected adversely if he has made a public return of too few jugers, nor shall anyone hold these if he has made a public return of too many jugers.